Myositis ossificans in childhood.

Myositis ossificans is a benign, localized, ossifying lesion of soft tissues that is rarely reported in young children. This paper describes two cases found in a search of the surgical biopsy files of the Adelaide Children's Hospital over the 30 yr period from 1962 to 1991, in boys both aged 7 yrs. Diagnosis was assisted by combined clinical, radiological and histopathological information (including an adequate well-orientated biopsy in Case 1 that demonstrated the characteristic growth pattern) enabling differentiation from other possibilities such as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.